Distribution centers are generally operated by wholesale and retail businesses, fulfillment houses and e-retailers. Distribution centers may receive periodic inventory replenishment orders from stores, wholesale clients or directly from customers. To fill these orders, distribution center employees typically read each order and proceed to pull the ordered articles from inventory shelves. At the end of that process, the picked articles are typically packed into shipping containers. The shipping containers are then usually sent to their final destinations. In the past, the execution of these orders has been typically done utilizing manual labor. However, strong industry trends toward order fulfillment cost reduction combined with just-in-time replenishing requirements have created a demand for a more responsive, less costly and more efficient order fulfillment methodology. As a result, many businesses, especially retailers, have adopted “broken-case” inventory replenishment methodology.
“Broken-case” inventory replenishment means that orders are filled in small quantities, typically less than a full case. Therefore, cases of products must be opened, thus the term broken-case and articles removed from those broken cases to fill replenishment or customers' orders.
Unfortunately, the benefits of broken case replenishing can carry a huge increase in operational cost. Additionally, customer service level expectations continue to put pressure upon distribution and fulfillment operations. Because of the above mentioned reasons, many retailers have identified chain supply logistics and specially inventory replenishing (order fulfillment), as strategic functions where competitive advantage can be realized and maintained.
In an effort to control the ever-increasing cost of order fulfillment, distribution and fulfillment centers are typically making extensive use of computer aided inventory replenishment techniques. Computer aided inventory replenishment has helped distribution operations realize better efficiencies than in the past. However, these techniques can suffer drawbacks, and virtually all of them are heavily dependant on manual labor. This dependence on manual labor, can translate into continuously increasing uncertainty, risk and financial costs to replenishment operations.
Hence, there may be a need for order fulfillment that improves on one or more of the drawbacks mentioned above. Namely, order fulfillment that is inexpensive, easy to implement and interface in existing distribution centers and which reduces reliance on human labor in the picking and packing operations while improving overall inventory flow. The present examples of transferring and organizing articles from a shelf into a container, addresses one or more of these needs.